


Understood

by rainbowcowboy



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Short One Shot, i guess, im really just projecting all of my issues here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 00:35:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20218882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowcowboy/pseuds/rainbowcowboy
Summary: Byakuya had never had someone that understood.





	Understood

Byakuya had never had someone that understood.

His father was not a father, but a businessman, raising an heir.

His step-siblings held no particular attachment to him; in the end, they were enemies in the game of life. 

He would rather bleed out in a bathtub then speak about his feelings with some sort of therapist. 

He’d made it through life cold and uncaring, putting up invincible walls of ice around what he might call a heart. 

Makoto Naegi understood. 

It had taken Byakuya awhile to realize why exactly he felt so comfortable around the plebeian- he shouldn’t say that. He’d been working on not saying that. 

He hadn’t realized that Makoto understood until one day, when Byakuya just felt heavy and vacant and grey, the shorter boy didn’t say anything. He just approached Byakuya, and gently wrapped his arms around Byakuya’s waist, and rested his head on Byakuya’s chest. Without any sound, he said, it’s ok. You’re ok. 

Those emotional walls weren’t quite as strong as Byakuya thought. 

Makoto Naegi understood that for all his reading, Byakuya hated words. Sometimes, speech was ok; during the late hours of the night, in hushed tones laced with lustful magenta; on soft days, light and barely-on-key to whatever song happens to be playing; pulling all nighters, passionately discussing murder cases and off-beat theories. 

But sometimes, talking was the most awful act Byakuya could think of. When he would get overwhelmed, whether by stimuli or stress or anything, really, Matoko knew how useless “What’s wrong?” tended to be. Instead, he’d take Byakuya’s hand in his, and softly rub circles against the flesh of Byakuya’s thumb; an anchor for Byakuya to hold on to reality. 

Makoto Naegi understood that eye contact made Byakuya feel off at the best of times, and made him downright panic at the worst. He never made Byakuya look at him, never stared right at his eyes. He knew that Byakuya wasn’t looking down on him or brushing him off, but only keeping himself calm. He told Byakuya he cared in other ways.

Similarly, he never, not once chalked Byakuya’s blunt realism to meanness of spirit. It almost felt like Makoto could tell, through magic or telekinesis or whatnot, that Byakuya simply struggled to grasp and express empathy, even if deep down, he felt it.

Makoto Naegi was working on making Byakuya feel better, and act better as a result. Whether it was a conscious effort, or just a product of Makoto’s undampenable hope, Byakuya didn’t mind. Because Byakuya trusted Makoto to understand, and that was something he’d never done before. 

Perhaps Byakuya had never been understood by anyone.

Perhaps, until Makoto Naegi had found his way into his life, Byakuya had never let anyone understand.

**Author's Note:**

> i was in a type of mood last night so i wrote this
> 
> dedicated to my bf ilydky


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